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BREAD-MAKING 



T. N. T. 






NEW YORK & LONDON 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

ftjtt ftradurbocker $«ss 

1884 



Cm ' 
copy Z 



COPYRIGHT BY 

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
1884 



Press of 

G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York 



DEDICATION. 



Co gtmerican W&omtn, 

ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO HAVE FOUND THEIR HOMES BEYOND THE ROUND 

OF THE " BAKER'S CART," THIS LITTLE BOOK IS DEDICATED, 

IN THE HOPE THAT IT MAY HELP TO LIGHTEN, NOT 

ONLY THE BREAD ON WHICH THEY LIVE, 

BUT ALSO ONE OF THE BURDENS 

OF THEIR LIVES, 



CONTENTS. 



Extract i 

Introduction 5 

Difficulties in Bread-Making ... 9 

Mixing, Kneading, and Moulding . . 14 

The Oven 29 

Brick Oven 37 

Special Cautions 4° 

Sour Bread 4 6 

Yeast 49 

Receipt for Yeast 52 

Biscuits 54 

Receipt for Biscuits 58 

Saleratus and Baking Powder . . 60 
Receipt for Soda Biscuits . . .63 



EXTRACT 

FROM A NOTE IN FROUDE'S LIFE OF THOMAS 
CARLYLE. 

"It was now that the ' bread problem had 
to be encountered, of which Miss Jewsbury 
speaks in her ' Recollections of Mrs. Carlyle.' 
Carlyle could not eat such bread as the Craigen- 
puttock servants could bake for him, or as 
could be bought at Dumfries, and Mrs. Carlyle 
had to make it herself. Miss Smith, an ac- 
complished lady, living at Carlisle, has kindly 
sent me a letter in which the story is charac- 
teristically told by Mrs. Carlyle herself. It is 
dated Jan. 11, 1857, — after an interval of nearly 
thirty years. Mrs. Carlyle writes : * * * 
* It was plainly my duty as a Christian wife to 

bake at home. So I sent for Cobbett's " Cot- 

z 



2 EXTRACT. 

tage Economy," and fell to work at a loaf of 
bread. But knowing nothing about the process 
of fermentation, or the heat of ovens, it came 
to pass that my loaf got put into the oven at 
the time myself ought to have been put into 
bed; and I remained, the only person not 
asleep, in a house in the middle of a desert. 
One o'clock struck, and then two, and then 
three ; and still I was sitting in an immense 
solitude, my whole body aching with weari- 
ness, my heart aching with a sense of forlorn- 
ness and degradation. That I, who had been 
so petted at home, whose comfort had been 
studied by everybody in the house, who had 
never been required to do any thing but cul- 
tivate my mind, should have to pass all those 
hours of the night in watching a loaf of bread — 
which might n't turn out bread after all ! Such 
thoughts maddened me, till I laid down my 
head on the table and sobbed aloud. It was 



EXTRACT. 3 

then that somehow the idea of Benvenuto Cel- 
lini, sitting up all night watching his Perseus 
in the furnace, came into my head, and suddenly 
I asked myself : " After all, in the sight of the 
Upper Powers, what is the mighty difference 
between a statue of Perseus and a loaf of 
bread, so that each be the thing one's hand 
has found to do ? " The man's determined 
will, his energy, his patience, his resource were 
the really admirable things of which his statue 
of Perseus was the mere chance expression. If 
he had been a woman, living at Craigenputtock, 
with a dyspeptic husband, sixteen miles from 
a baker, and he a bad one, all these same qual- 
ities would have come out, more fitly, in a 
good loaf of bread.' " 



INTRODUCTION. 



The petition " Give us this day our daily 
bread " is the first request for material good, 
in the model of prayer given to man. In it 
bread stands for all that supports the life of 
man. It is the most important of human 
food. The petition is not " Give us good bread." 
If it were, the answer of Providence might be : 
"The wheat is provided ; it is your duty to make 
from it bread, and good bread." In this, as in all 
the provision for human needs, it is left as a 
study and an exercise of human intelligence to 
find the very best mode of using the materials 
given to us. Men and women have learned to 
make ten thousand things with marvellous skill 
and exactness. All the products of iron, of 

5 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

wood, of clay, of wool, and of cotton are wrought 
into numberless forms of usefulness and beauty, 
with the exactness and multiplied power of 
machinery, but bread, the home product, is still 
an experiment. Even the bread of the pro- 
fessional baker has been, until lately, often a 
daily failure ; unequal in different countries 
and sections, but nowhere uniformly the best 
possible result of the wheat. 

Before the " Centennial Exposition," at Phila- 
delphia and the introduction of Vienna bread, 
a large proportion of the baker's bread sold in 
New York was mixed with alum and other 
chemicals, and was a light, chaffy, yeasty-smell- 
ign substance. It would have been worth all that 
the " Exposition " cost to gain the model of 
perfect yeast and perfect bread that was there 
shown. It raised the standard of the manu- 
facture of bread by bakers, and faultless bread 
is now a daily comfort in many hotels and 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

restaurants, and many private tables in our 
cities. But when citizens go to the country 
they find the same disappointing experiment 
going on in very many places ; the same sour, or 
heavy, or dyspeptic bread, to mar the pleasure 
of the change, and to fret the relations of 
boarder and host. The reform that has been 
made among the bakers is still waiting to be 
made at home. If the baking of household 
bread can cease to be a matter of oral tradition, 
and the measures of quantity, and time, and 
heat, to be a matter of guess, a vast addition will 
have been made to general health and comfort. 



Difficulties in Bread- Making, 



A LEARNED Professor once said to his host- 
ess, when seated at the table : " Is it really- 
such a very hard thing to have good home-made 
bread ? " 

The Professor was familiar with knowledge, 
science, and art in various forms, but the vision 
of a thoroughly good piece of bread seemed 
to bewilder his mind. What answer the Pro- 
fessor received does not appear ; but if the 
same question were put to a score of house- 
keepers they would probably, almost with one 
voice, say : " Oh, yes, it is a very hard thing to 
have good home-made bread." If asked why 
it is so hard, perhaps they could not tell ; but 
9 



IO BREAD-MAKING. 

doubtless the reason is that those upon whom 
they depend to make their bread often know so 
little about the subject, and they themselves 
so much less. It is very common for compe- 
tent housekeepers and for skilful cooks, when 
asked how they arrive at certain good results, 
to ignore all rules and affirm that " judgment 
and experience " are their only guides. This 
is very well for those who have judgment, and 
through knowledge and practice have gained 
experience, but unfortunately this tradition 
has so passed into a proverb that the same po- 
sition of following no rule is constantly taken 
by those who have neither knowledge, judg- 
ment, nor experience. Alas, then, for their 
mixtures, or, rather, for those who must de- 
pend upon their mixtures! As this matter of 
bread-making is a difficult and troublesome 
business, it is not strange that housekeepers- 
shrink from meeting it, and perhaps she was a 



BREAD-MAKING. 1 1 

wise matron who counselled her young friend : 
" Keep away from your flour barrel." 

No apology then need be offered for printing 
hints on bread-making, as long as so much 
poor bread is put upon our tables, and house- 
keepers have so much trouble in teaching this 
important and simple art, — simple in one view, 
but very difficult in another. Flour and water, 
with a little salt, are mixed, and yeast is added, 
fermentation follows, and when the fermenta- 
tion has expanded the dough to the right de- 
gree, or, in common speech, when it is " enough 
raised," or " light enough," the dough is made 
into loaves and put into pans for baking; these 
loaves must repeat the process of fermentation, 
expansion, or rising, and, at the right moment, 
are to be put into an oven, at the right heat 
for baking. This is very simple. The im- 
portant points to understand in making bread, 
are just how much yeast to use for a given 



*2 BREAD-MAKING. 

quantity of flour and water, just when the 
dough and the loaves are at the proper light- 
ness, and just how hot the oven should be for 
baking. 

The points of difficulty are in the fact that 
dough is exceedingly susceptible to changes of 
temperature, that yeast is not always the same 
in quality, and that there is no invariable test, 
like the thermometer, by which to regulate the 
oven. 

Dough will rise much faster in warm weather 
or in a warm place than in cool weather or in 
a cool place. Good, strong yeast will do its 
work faster than poor ; nor will so much be re- 
quired. These facts prove that while minute 
rules and directions can be given about bread- 
making, unvarying rules and directions, to ap- 
ply on all occasions and under all circum- 
stances, cannot be given. Close observation, 
careful perception, and practice can alone sup- 



BREAD-MAKING. 13 

ply the want of unvarying rules in this matter. 
The making of good home-made bread seems 
almost one of the lost arts ; and yet any person 
of very ordinary capacity, who really wants 
and means to learn this accomplishment, can 
do so. Of course, in first attempts there will 
be some mistakes and failures, but under good 
instruction, patience and perseverance, with 
attentive observation, will be successful. To 
an intelligent house-keeper all will soon be very 
plain and simple. The greatest difficulty in 
the whole matter of bread-making is the at- 
tempt to teach so nice and delicate an opera- 
tion. In careful and skilful hands bread- 
making is as certain as any other chemical 
process. In careless and unskilful hands it 
fails as often as chemical experiments would 
if left to be performed by those ignorant of 
chemical laws. 



MIXING, KNEADING, AND MOULDING. 



To make good bread, good flour, good yeast, 
and an oven capable of being properly heated, 
are required. There must be on the part of 
the baker intelligent understanding of the 
range, or stove ; as to how the fire should be 
made, how the heat is conducted to the oven, 
how the dampers are managed, how the flues 
are cleaned, and before attempting to make 
bread, a certainty that the range is well 
cleaned, and the oven in good order. When 
bread and biscuits are to be made constantly, 
several articles are required that should be ex- 
clusively used for this purpose, viz., a bread- 
board and a rolling-pin, a sieve and a bread- 
pan, and a second pan into which to sift the 



MIXING, KNEADING, ETC, 15 

flour. If convenient, it is well to have a 
smaller vessel in which to mix the sponge (fig. 
i), but this is not indispensable, as it may be 
mixed in the bread-pan. 

By always using the same pan, and by 




Fig. i. 

always making the same quantity of bread, it 
is much easier to become familiar with the ap- 
pearances which are to indicate the different 
steps in the process. Thus a great deal of 



1 6 BREAD-MAKING. 

trouble is saved, and one escapes a great many 
unsuccessful experiments. 

The receipt here given is made on a basis of 
six quarts of flour, and three pints of water. 
A bread-pan adapted to it will hold about 
fourteen quarts, and the smaller vessel for the 
sponge should hold about six quarts. The 
article now generally used as a bread-pan is a 
large tin pan, and it is very good for the pur- 
pose. Formerly wooden ones were much 
used ; they are not desirable, for even although 
it is supposed that they are carefully washed 
and dried, they sometimes give an unpleasant 
taste to the bread, which no doubt comes from 
their being used when damp. A stone pan is 
the best kind ; such an one, however, is heavy 
to handle and difficult to procure. 

In giving the following receipt it is not in- 
tended to imply that this precise mode is the 
only one in which good bread can be made. 



MIXING, KNEADING, ETC. I J 

There may be slight modifications of the plan, 
but the principle is always the same. Some 
persons make no sponge, but prefer to use all 
the flour and water at the first mixing ; and 
make and knead the dough at once, leaving it 
to rise during the night. Some omit the pota- 
toes ; properly used they make the bread light 
and tender. 

Bread can be, and often is, under some con- 
ditions of yeast and weather, made and baked 
on the same day, and in warm climates it 
always should be ; but the most convenient 
plan for ordinary use, is to mix it the evening 
before baking. 

Some flour absorbs rather more, and some 
rather less, water than is given here as the pro- 
portionate quantity for use ; but the difference 
is not much, and this must be learned by the 
appearance and feeling of the dough when 
kneading it. The following proportions are 
suited to the latitude of New York State ; 



1 8 BREAD-MAKING. 

6 quarts of flour (measured before sifting it). 

3 pints tepid water. 

6 or 8 boiled potatoes. 
. i table-spoonful salt. 

I yeast cake in summer, or 

I gill of yeast in summer. 

If the yeast cakes or yeast are powerful, in 
our hottest summer weather it may be well to 
use a little less ; or it may be found desirable 
to change the plan, and instead of mixing the 
bread overnight, to mix it early on the morn- 
ing of the day it is to be baked. 

As the weather becomes cooler, the amount 
of yeast should be increased gradually, until, 
in our very cold winter weather, from two to 
three cakes will be required, or from two to 
three gills of yeast, to make the bread light — 
possibly even more. 

Bread is to be mixed " overnight," as it is 
said — that is, the evening before it is to be 



MIXING, KNEADING, ETC. 1 9 

baked. About an hour before the bread is to be 
mixed, say at eight o'clock in the evening, put 
six or eight good-sized potatoes on to boil as 
if for ordinary use, and at about the same time 
put the yeast cakes (broken up) into half a 
pint of tepid water to soak. Sift the flour 
(six quarts), and separate two quarts for pres- 
ent use. When the potatoes are tender, pour 
off the water, throw them into the vessel in 
which the sponge is to be mixed, measure the 
water (three pints), and adjust the temperature. 
It should be tepid (90 ). Now, while the po- 
tatoes are still hot, tender, and mealy, mash 
them quickly, taking out any lumps there may 
be, add a little flour with a spoon, and stir ; 
then a little water, and stir; and so go on, 
mixing the flour and the water with the pota- 
toes, gradually, until the two quarts of flour, 
separated for present use, and the three pints 
of water are used, and you have a mixture 



20 BREAD-MAKING. 

like very thick paste ; stir in the salt, a table- 
spoonful ; see that the yeast cakes that were 
put to soak are quite soft, mash them entirely, 
and add them to the mixture, stirring them 
thoroughly in. This is the sponge; cover it 
with a cloth, and set it in a warm (not hot) 
place to rise during the night. 

In the morning, about six or seven oclock, 
the sponge should have risen to the top of the 
jar (if of the size described), or within an inch of 
it, and should be covered with fine white bub- 
bles, much like the foam on beer, and be still 
in an active state of fermentation ; if it is not 
in this condition it is not ready to use, and 
may need to stand by the fire a while longer. 
Pour this sponge into the bread-pan, add 
gradually the remainder of the sifted flour, at 
first stirring, and then kneading, for fifteen or 
twenty minutes, until the mass feels light and 
dry to the hands, and does not stick to them, 



MIXING, KNEADING, ETC. 21 

as it did in the early process of kneading. This 
is the dough ; cover it with a cloth, and set it 
by the fire or in a warm place to rise. It 
should not be in too hot a place ; but as it is 
not to stand all night, as the sponge did, it can 
be in a warmer place than would have been 
proper for that. The best temperature is 
from 70 to 8o°. It will take probably from 
three to six hours, varying according to the 
temperature and the strength of the yeast, for 
this dough to rise. When the dough has risen, 
or expanded, to between two or three times 
its original bulk, and cracks on the top, it is 
ready to make into loaves, and put into the 
baking-pans. If it- was made in a bread-pan of 
the size and shape described, the illustration 
gives its appearance when ready to make into 
loaves. (Fig. 2.) 

Before touching the dough, however, look at 
the fire, to see whether it requires attention, 



22 



BREAD-MAKING. 



and if it does, prepare it now, putting on coal 
enough to keep it in proper condition during 
the baking of the bread, for it is not well to add 
coal while the bread is in the oven. Also now 




Fig. 2. 

butter the pans in which the bread is to be 
baked ; for the dough must not be touched, 
not even lifted to the table, until the moment 
that it is to be attended to. These prepara^ 



MIXING, KNEADING, ETC. 23 

tions being made, scatter a little flour upon the 
bread-board so that the dough will not stick 
to it ; empty the dough out of the bread-pan 
on to the board, and turn over the whole mass 
for a minute. This amount of dough will make 
five good-sized loaves, or four good-sized 
loaves and two pans of biscuits, say two or 
three dozen. Divide the dough into five equal 



Fig. 3. 
parts. It does not now require much knead- 
ing ; in fact, the less handling the loaves have 
the better. Each loaf should be gently 
kneaded, or rather moulded, and when brought 
into good shape be put into the baking-pan. 
In this process as little flour should be used 
on the hands as possible, only just as much as 
will keep the dough from sticking to the hands 



24 BREAD-MAKING. 

and board, while shaping the loaves. Set the 
loaves near the fire to rise, and notice the time. 
They will require to stand from half an hour to 
an hour, before they will be ready for baking. 
The appearance of each loaf, and not the time, 
must decide whether it is light enough, 
although it is always best to note the time as 




Fig. 4. 
a partial guide. Each loaf should rise to about 
twice its size when first put into the pan, and 
when after such rising, it begins to crack a 
little on the top, sometimes even before it 
cracks, it is ready to be put into the oven. 
Close the oven door immediately on putting 
the bread in, and be sure that no part of the 
range is open during the baking ; neither 



MIXING, KNEADING, ETC. 2$ 

should the door be opened too soon, nor too 
often, to look at the bread. About ten 
minutes after putting in the first loaf, or 
loaves, it is best to look into the oven to see 
how the bread is doing. By this time the 
loaves should have risen about one third more, 
if the oven is at the right heat. If the loaves 
were not all ready to go in at first, the others 
will probably be ready now, and this moment 
should be taken to avoid opening the oven 
door again too soon. This matter of opening 
the door when the bread is in the oven must 
be done with all possible despatch, so as not 
to cool the oven, by the admission of outer air. 
It will be best to look at them once or twice 
again while the loaves are in the oven, as they 
may require changing. 

If the loaves begin to brown on the top too 
quickly, put a piece of thick brown paper over 
them ; if they begin to brown quickly at one 



26 BREAD-MAKING. 

end, and not at the other, change their posi- 
tion ; or if the loaf at the back of the oven 
bakes faster than the one at the front, exchange 
their places; but always remember to make 
these changes as quickly as possible. About 
an hour will be the time required for baking 
loaves of the size this receipt describes. 

When the loaves are taken from the oven 
they should be placed upon an unpainted 
wooden table, standing so that the air can pass 
back of them. The bread should not be put 
into the bread-box or jar until it is quite cold. 
If it is at all warm when shut in a box the 
steam will condense in the box and make the 
bread damp, and it will not keep well, but will 
soon become mouldy. If a part of the dough 
is to be made into biscuitsj they can be made 
very nice and tender by adding some butter. 
In this case make but four loaves, and lay aside 
one fifth of the dough until the loaves are in 



MIXING, KNEADING, ETC. - V 

the pans by the fire. To the dough of which 
the biscuits are to be made, add a piece of but- 
ter of the size of an egg, and knead it thorough- 
ly in. It will take three or four minutes to 
work the butter thoroughly and evenly through 
this dough and to bring it again to a dry con- 
dition, and it will be necessary to use a very 
little more flour on the hands and on the board, 
than when moulding the loaves. Roll out the 
dough to the thinness of half an inch ; cut out 
the biscuits, put them into the baking-pans, and 
set them aside to rise. The biscuits, having 
butter in them, will take longer than the loaves 
did to rise ; they should stand till they are 
about twice as thick as they were when first 
cut ; it will take from an hour to an hour and 
a half before they are light enough. They will 
bake in thirty or forty minutes, and when taken 
out of the oven should be treated in the same 
way that the bread was. Baking will add about 



28 BREAD-MAKING. 

a third to their thickness if the oven is at the 
right heat. 

If there is not room for the biscuits in the 
oven when the bread is in, and they have to 
wait till it is taken out, they should not be 
placed by the fire at first, but away from it, 
and only brought near a little while before 
going into the oven. 

If the fire is not sufficient to keep the oven 
at the right heat for baking the biscuits, it 
should be renewed between taking the bread 
out of the oven and putting the biscuits in. 



THE OVEN. 



When bread has gone successfully through 
each process to the time of baking, every thing 
depends upon the right condition of the oven. 
The best bread may be injured or spoiled by a 
mistake here. 

Any construction, arrangement, or incidental 
management, by means of which a current of 
cool air is caused to pass around the oven, or 
by means of which the heated air is prevented 
passing around it, will damage the condition of 
the oven, and thereby injure the bread. 

Sometimes, when a new range or stove is 
put up, and one does not understand the way 
in which it is managed, this trouble may occur ; 

or in an old range, a damper may be out of 

29 



30 BREAD-MAKING. 

order and not work properly, or the slide of 
the sheet-iron partition above the range may 
be open, or a cook who does not understand 
these matters, may take off a cover from the 
range, and thus cool the oven. In all ranges 
and stoves, the general principle of heating the 
ovens by hot air passing around them, is the 
same ; there are, however, variations in con- 
struction, and therefore one must understand 
the way in which the particular range in use is 
managed, how the flues are cleaned, how the 
heat is conducted to the oven, how the heat is 
regulated, and how large a fire is required to 
give the proper amount of heat. 

In some ranges the ovens are low, and the 
heating tubes are under them, as well as at the 
sides. In such cases it is very important to 
clean out the ashes and dead coals, which fall 
from time to time into the spaces and tubes as 
they would tend to cool the lower part of the 



THE OVEN. 3 1 

oven, and it is very important to have a great- 
er heat at the bottom of the oven than at the 
top. This thorough cleaning should in some 
ranges be done every two weeks. 

On the morning of a baking day the grate 
should be emptied of all cinders, and a fresh 
fire made, which must not be allowed at any 
time to get so low as to endanger its going 
out. When it needs renewing, the ashes 
should be shaken out from below, before add- 
ing coal. The draughts must be opened 
(ordinarily by pulling out dampers) to start the 
fire, and closed as soon as it burns well, by 
pushing the dampers in. In many ranges 
these same dampers have to be closed to heat 
the oven, so that it is indispensable to close 
them a long-enough time before baking to heat 
the oven ; say from fifteen minutes to half an 
hour. 

Chemists place the baking heat of the oven 



3 2 BREAD-MAKING. 

at about 400 , but until there is an oven ther- 
mometer this information is of no practical 
use. There is no absolute guide by which to 
judge whether the oven heat is right. One 
test is that when flour will brown on being 
thrown into the bottom of the oven, it is at 
the right heat, but that if the flour chars, or 
becomes black, it is too hot. Another test is 
that if the hand can be held in the oven, just 
the time it takes to count twenty moderately, 
it is hot enough, but that if thirty can be 
counted moderately, it is not hot enough. 

In this matter, all bakers must learn for 
themselves by observation and practice. The 
feeling to a practised hand is a very great help 
in deciding upon the condition of- the oven ; 
but the best way at first seems to be to try by 
experiment, and then, having found how much 
fire and what management gives the best re- 
sult, to follow always in the same way. This 



THE OVEN. 33 

can easily be done by making in the morning 
a fire of a given size, and renewing it daily at 
the same hour, adding always the same quan- 
tity of coal. 

It cannot be too much insisted on that every 
part of the range must be closed while the 
bread is in the oven. All other cooking ar- 
rangements must be made subordinate to bak- 
ing. If the bread has been put into the oven 
just before lunch-time, and a steak is to be 
broiled, it must be done without taking off the 
covers from the range ; if they are taken off, 
cool air will pass into the oven, the bread will 
probably be spoiled, and perhaps no one will 
understand why. 

If the oven is quite too cool when the bread 
is put into it, the bread will not rise in it, and 
will be a miserable solid, soggy mass. If the 
oven is quite too hot when the bread is put 
into it, the crust will be formed too soon on 



34 BREAD-MAKING. 

the top of the loaves, and this will prevent 
their rising properly. This premature harden- 
ing or encrusting of the loaves will also pre- 
vent the moisture passing out of them, and 
they will be solid and moist in the middle, and 
will look inside as if they were slack-baked. 
The fault of too hot or too cool an oven will 
injure the bread in a greater or less degree in 
the same way. There should be, as before 
said, greater heat at the bottom of the oven 
than at the top, so that the gas and moisture 
can be thoroughly driven through the loaf by 
the lower heat, before any process of hardening 
has begun on the top of the loaf. 

To know how best to secure this condition, 
the range in use must be understood. Often 
injury to loaves from too much heat at the 
top can be saved by putting a paper over them. 
Probably bread is much oftener damaged by 
too hot than by too cool an oven, without its 



THE OVEN. 35 

being known, because the effect on the middle 
of the loaf is, in each case, so much the same. 
If the oven is too hot when the bread is very 
nearly ready to be put in, open the oven door 
for a little while before putting the bread in, 
and this will cool it. 

One loaf will not require as hot an oven as 
four or five, if put in at once, for the loaves 
themselves will somewhat reduce the tempera- 
ture of the oven. 

Occasionally one finds in the country a stove 
in which wood instead of coal is used. It is 
not as easy in this case to keep the heat of the 
oven at the uniform temperature, which is im- 
portant. As the wood burns out quickly, the 
fire must be kept up by adding more wood, 
while the bread is in the oven. This must be 
done very carefully, so as not to increase the 
heat of the oven so suddenly as to burn the 
bread. With careful attention a little practice 



3^ BREAD-MAKING. 

will prove how soon and how often wood will 
need to be added to the fire. 

Some years ago what is called a reflector was 
much used in baking before an open fire ; per- 
haps they are still found in some parts of the 
country. It consists of a standard to hold the 
baking-pans with a closely fitting tin cover 
around three sides, open only at the front, 
which is put for baking close before the fire. 
In using such a baker the biscuits should go 
through precisely the same process of prepara- 
tion as for baking in an oven. When they are 
ready for baking they should be placed in the 
baker, which should be set before the fire and 
covered at once. The cover may be lifted 
back a moment, after a little time, to look at 
the biscuits, and if they are baking too quickly 
they may be moved a little farther from the 
fire. In this, as in all other modes of baking, 
a little practice will be required. 



BRICK OVEN. 



There is not as much difficulty in baking in 
an old-fashioned brick oven as there is in 
baking in the oven of a range or stove, and 
perhaps its being so much less in use, now, is 
one reason that so much more poor bread is 
found in the country than formerly. A brick 
oven, properly heated, and closed promptly 
after the bread is put in, has no outside ele- 
ment of danger, whereas a range or a stove 
being used for other purposes than baking, 
may be thoughtlessly opened, or the continued 
fire which heats the oven may be badly man- 
aged. 

The first point to attend to before using a 
brick oven is to know that it is well built and 

37 



3% BREAD-MAKING. 

in good working order, and the next to be sure 
that there is an abundant supply of good, dry- 
wood on hand for heating it. If wood has 
been cut, and carelessly left uncovered, and a 
rain of two or three days has soaked it, it will 
be quite impossible to make a brisk fire that 
will heat the oven in time for bread that is 
already in the pans for baking. The wood 
should be selected of equal size, and cut of 
even length, and then a few experiments will 
prove how many sticks are required to make 
enough fire to heat the oven. 

The wood is allowed to burn all away, till 
only bright coals and hot ashes remain ; these 
are put at the back and sides of the oven, or 
if their remaining in it would make it too hot, 
are all to be taken out, before the bread is put 
in. Bread generally goes into the oven first, 
and cake after the bread is taken out. If a 
little more heat is required, some bright Coals 



BRICK OVEN. 39 

can be left just within the oven door before it 
is closed. Like the oven door of a range or a 
stove, it must not be opened too soon, nor too 
often. The same tests that were given to 
judge of the heat of a range oven, apply here. 
Perhaps a change of color that the heat gives 
to the bricks may help in judging of the right 
heat. 



SPECIAL CAUTIONS. 



A mistake in any part of the process of 
bread-making may be damaging to the bread. 
It must always be remembered that the rising 
of bread depends on fermentation, and that 
fermentation goes on more rapidly in warm 
weather than in cool weather, and that there- 
fore the amount required of yeast of the same 
quality in a given quantity of bread, depends 
upon the weather, or the temperature of the 
room in which the sponge and dough are kept. 
Some houses are kept up to the temperature 
of almost summer heat through the winter, 
and in such case the bread can be uniformly 
made with the same amount of yeast in winter 

as in summer. Where, however, the change 
40 



SPECIAL CAUTIONS. 4 1 

of weather comes into the house, a gradual 
increase of yeast is needful in winter. The 
best bread is made with the smallest amount 
of yeast that will make it fully light. The 
leaven should be literally hid in the measure 
of flour, so that it is only discovered by its 
effects. The sponge, dough, and loaves will 
also probably rise in a shorter time in summer 
than in winter, notwithstanding the change in 
the amount of yeast used. Chemistry proves 
that from 70 to 86° is the temperature "for 
fermentation to go on rapidly."* Consequently 
in winter the dough and loaves must be placed 
near the fire, and in summer generally away 
from it. A chilling draught should not be 
allowed to strike them. "At 45 fermenta- 
tion goes on slowly, at 32 there is no action."* 
A sponge which is to stand all night does not 
need to be in a temperature of 70 all the time. 

* Youman's "Household Science." 



42 BREAD-MAKING. 

The temperature of a room that has been at 
70 during the day, may fall to 6o° or even to 
50 during the night without injury, and per- 
haps with advantage to the sponge, by keep- 
ing it from rising too soon. As, however, the 
dough and loaves can be watched, it is safe, 
and best for them to be kept in a warmer 
place, but not over 86°, as this, chemistry 
proves, is a point at which they are likely to 
become sour. 

The water with which the sponge is mixed 
should be about tepid, 90 ; if cold it retards 
the rising of the sponge ; if hot it scalds the 
flour. 

The potatoes must be freshly boiled, light, 
mealy, and be quickly handled ; they must be 
used while hot and tender ; cold ones will do 
no good. 

The bread must not stand too long in either 
stage, sponge, dough, or loaves. 



SPECIAL CAUTIONS. 43 

If the sponge stands after it has reached its 
maximum of lightness, it will have less capacity 
to raise the dough ; it will rise a second time, 
but its vigor is exhausted. In the best con- 
dition of a well-made light sponge it is covered 
with fine white bubbles ; when it stands too 
lonsr, falls and rises a second time, the bubbles 
are larger, and the sponge darker colored. If 
the dough is allowed to stand after it has ex- 
panded to its full capacity, it will fall, and it 
will not have the power to raise the loaves 
properly ; it will also be darker in color. If the 
loaves stand too long in the pans, they will, 
after rising, fall, and become dark, and the fine 
porous texture of the bread when baked will 
be changed to a coarse one, much like the dif- 
ference between a fine, soft, light-colored 
sponge and a common, coarse, dark one. 

These changes show plainly, that in each part 
of bread-making the next step must be taken 



44 BREAD-MAKING. 

before the yeast has exhausted its force, so 
that the rising process may go on properly in 
every stage. 

It is a very common mistake to let the loaves 
stand too long in the pans before putting them 
into the oven. In very warm weather, half an 
hour may be long enough, but the loaves are 
seldom ready in less than three-quarters of an 
hour, and rarely, if ever, are they improved 
even in winter by standing more than an hour. 

It is much easier to have good bread when 
making it constantly than occasionally. In the 
former case the changes in temperature come 
so gradually that it is easy to diminish, or in- 
crease gradually, the amount of yeast ; and one 
also becomes familiar with all the points to be 
attended to, and with the oven. On the other 
hand, a very good baker when quite out of 
practice may make a sad failure ; or one in 
practice, when trying new yeast, may be be- 



SPECIAL CAUTIONS. 45 

trayed into a batch of sour bread, or with a 
new oven may be entrapped into a batch of 
burnt bread. 

When an intelligent and skilful person is in 
constant practice, using the same materials and 
the same oven, all of good quality, it is beauti- 
ful to see how this much-abused domestic art 
proves itself an exact science, by giving not 
only day after day, but month after month, 
and year after year, successful and uniform re- 
sults. 



SOUR BREAD. 



Sour bread is such a common evil that a 
special chapter should be given to it, even at 
the risk of repetition. 

If the flour is sour, the bread will be so too, 
of course. 

Sour bread follows also as a consequence of 
sour yeast, and probably more bread is sour 
from this cause than from any other cause. 
Very often, however, good, sweet flour, and 
good, sweet yeast, are made into sour bread by 
wrong management. Precisely how, and when, 
and why the chemical change of the formation 
of acid in dough takes place, must be left to 
chemists to describe ; but it is of great practical 

use to learn from them that a higher tempera- 

46 



SOUR BREAD. 47 

ture than 86° is liable to cause dough to sour. 
This chemical secret may explain a great deal 
of sour bread, especially in summer, and shows 
that then the dough should generally be put 
away from the fire instead of by it. 

If there is not enough yeast used, the dough 
may become sour from having to stand too 
long to rise ; in this case the bread will be 
solid and dark, and perhaps heavy. With the 
right quantity of yeast, if the bread is left to 
stand too long, especially in warm weather, 
the bread may become sour. Often chronic 
cases of sour bread come from a repetition of 
the same mistake in making the bread, but 
probably sour yeast, as before said, is the most 
frequent cause. Often there is a succession of 
sourness, for new yeast made with sour yeast 
will perpetuate the trouble. Some persons 
can readily distinguish the sour odor of spoiled, 
from the pungent odor of sweet yeast ; many, 



4& BREAD-MAKING. 

however, cannot, and therefore do not know 
that their yeast was sour until they find their 
bread so. To such persons the only safety in 
the matter is to discover after a few experi- 
ments how many days they can trust their 
yeast, and never use it beyond that time. 



YEAST. 



Bread can be raised with yeast, yeast cakes, 
or compressed yeast. The receipt for yeast given 
below is an excellent one. In making yeast, 
hops should be boiled in the water (and then 
strained out) for there is a preserving quality 
in hops that keeps the yeast from becoming 
sour in a day or two as it would without them. 
Some persons prefer what is called "potato 
yeast," which is made of flour and mashed 
potatoes, mixed with boiling water instead of 
hop water, under the idea that yeast made 
with hops gives a bitter taste to bread. But 
this " potato yeast " becomes sour very quick- 
ly, and is only fit to use on the day that it 
is made ; and even then does not give the 

49 



SO BREAD-MAKING. 

best kind of bread. When bread is bitter 
from the yeast it is probably because the hops 
were boiled too long, or because too many 
were used. The hops used in making yeast 
should be dried or pressed, not fresh hops. 
Dried hops should not be used when they 
have been kept more than a year, as they 
lose their strength. Pressed hops keep their 
strength longer, but must be bought with 
great care, as it is said that sometimes old 
hops are pressed. Hops should be kept in a 
dry place. 

Baker's yeast is often sour, and when de- 
pending upon it, it is very desirable to learn 
where the best can be found in one's neigh- 
borhood, and always send for the same. As 
bakers generally make yeast for immediate 
use, it is not safe to keep it over for future use. 

Yeast cakes when good, are very convenient, 
as they save all trouble of making or send- 



YEAST. 5 T 

ing for yeast ; such as are well made, entirely 
sweet and fresh, will keep good for two months, 
perhaps longer. They should be kept in a tin 
box, and in a dry place. Some persons do not 
like to use yeast cakes, thinking that they give 
their odor and taste to the bread. Probably 
when this taste is perceived in the bread, it 
comes from some imperfection in making 
it. When properly used it is not likely that 
any one can perceive a difference between 
bread made with yeast cakes and that made 
with yeast. 

Compressed yeast has an advantage over 
liquid yeast, or yeast cakes in that (when it is 
fresh) it makes light, tender, bread without 
potatoes. When using it, however, one needs 
to be very careful to know that it is quite fresh, 
as it will keep sweet but a few days, especially 
in summer. 

Bread made with compressed yeast should 
usually be made and baked on the same day. 



RECEIPT FOR YEAST. 



Pour onto an ounce of dried hops (a handful) 
three pints of boiling water, and let them boil 
ten minutes ; then strain the water boiling hot 
onto a pint and a half of flour, enough to 
make a mixture as thick as a batter for griddle 
cakes. Have ready mashed potato very soft, 
and fine, — a pint ; add it to the mixture and stir 
it well. When this mixture is lukewarm add 
half a teacup of brown sugar, a heaping tea- 
spoonful of salt, half a tablespoonful of ginger, 
and a gill of yeast, and mix all thoroughly. 
This mixture should be made in a vessel con- 
siderably more than large enough to hold it, as 
its bulk will increase by fermentation (rising) ; 
cover it, and set it in a warm, but not hot, 
52 



RECEIPT FOR YEAST. 53 

place to rise. Stir it down occasionally as it 
ferments, and when it has ceased its active 
rising, put it into a glass jar or stone crock, 
cover it closely, and set it in a cool (not damp) 
place. The jar or crock should not be filled 
to the brim, as this yeast is very active, and, 
by continued fermentation, might throw out 
the cork, or burst the jar, and be half lost. 

It is best not to put it into the jar till thirty 
hours after mixing it. This yeast, if kept cov- 
ered and in a cool, dry place, will keep sweet 
for three weeks, even in summer. 



BISCUITS. 



Sometimes biscuits are wanted when there 
is no bread in preparation. In such case they 
can be even nicer and more delicate when 
made by themselves, and mixed with milk in- 
stead of water, than when made from a part 
of the bread dough. Every rule that has been 
given with regard to the making of bread ap- 
plies in the making of biscuits ; the only vari- 
ations being that, as they are generally to be 
ready in a shorter time than bread is required, 
and as they are expected to be very light and 
tender, more milk, and yeast proportionately, 
may be used than in mixing bread ; as also the 
time which is convenient for the sponge and 
the dough to stand being shorter (than when 
54 



biscuits. 55 

making bread), they may be kept in a warmer 
place, but not in a temperature over 86°. 

In the milk to be used (which should be 
tepid), a piece of butter the size of a small 
egg, or half the size of a large one, should be 
melted, or softened ; or the butter can be 
added to the dough when the biscuits are 
moulded to put into the baking-pan. 

If the biscuits are to be for breakfast, it is 
well to mix the sponge as early as half-past 
five or six o'clock the evening before ; the po- 
tatoes having been boiled in proper time for 
use, and the yeast cake having been duly put 
to soak. The sponge should be covered with 
a cloth and put in a temperature from yo° to 
86°. 

By about nine or ten o'clock in the evening 
the sponge will be ready to add the remainder 
of the flour, when the dough should be gently 
kneaded for ten or twelve minutes, covered 



56 BREAD-MAKING. 

with a cloth, and left to stand for the night. 
In the morning early, as soon as the kitchen 
fire is made, and the tea-kettle filled, and be- 
fore time is taken for any other purpose, the 
biscuits should be moulded and put into the 
baking-pans to stand and rise again, before they 
are put into the oven. The dough may be 
rolled out on the board and the biscuits cut 
out or they may be moulded in the hands and 
shaped as preferred. The more gently the 
biscuits are handled and the less flour that is 
used on the hands and the board, the lighter and 
more delicate they will be. From thirty to 
forty minutes will be required to bake the bis- 
cuits, after they shall have stood by the fire to 
rise for from three quarters of an hour to an 
hour. 

If the biscuits are to be prepared for tea, 
the sponge should be mixed in the morning 
by, or as near seven o'clock as convenient. 



BISCUITS. 57 

By twelve or one o'clock the sponge will 
probably be ready to make the dough, and 
about an hour and a half before tea-time the 
biscuits should be cut or moulded to put into 
the baking-pans to stand again for rising be- 
fore they are baked. 



RECEIPT FOR BISCUITS. 



Three pints sifted flour. 

One pint of milk, tepid. 

Three or four boiled potatoes. 

A piece of butter the size of a small egg. 

One teaspoonful of salt. 

One gill of yeast or one yeast cake. 

Put the yeast cake to soak, and the potatoes 
on to boil nearly an hour before it is time to 
mix the sponge. In mixing the sponge use the 
milk, the potatoes, and one third of the flour, 
add the salt and yeast. When adding the 
remainder of the flour in making the dough, 
discretion may be used in the amount of the 
flour. If the dough can be kneaded for ten 

minutes, and it ceases to stick to the hands, the 

58 



RECEIPT FOR BISCUITS. 59 

whole three pints need not be used, but if, on 
the contrary, the dough still cleaves to the 
hands when three pints are used, a little more 
flour may be required to make the dough stiff 
enough. 



SALERATUS AND BAKING-POWDER. 



The bread question is not fully answered 
until a chapter shall have been added on 
"Saleratus and Baking-Powder, " including 
under these names the different forms of alkali 
which with acid is so much used for making 
biscuits. "Soda biscuits" (as biscuits made 
with alkali and acid are called) differ from 
ordinary bread biscuits, in that while the latter 
are raised with yeast by fermentation, the 
former are raised with alkali and acid by effer- 
vescence. In raising biscuits by fermentation 
the action is gradual ; in raising them by effer- 
vescence it is immediate. Still, while the pro- 
cess of making biscuits by these two means is 

so different, as much care and skill are required 
60 



SALERATUS AND BAKING-POWDER. 6 1 

in one case as in the other. This fact seems 
to have been somewhat overlooked, and '• soda 
biscuits " are to a great extent the refuge of 
those who do not know how to make good 
raised bread, and who have given up the 
attempt to learn. 

There can be no reasonable objection to this 
kind of food occasionally, if properly made. In 
an emergency, when the supply of bread has 
given out too soon and more is suddenly 
required, it is very convenient to prepare 
biscuits within an hour's notice. Good " soda 
biscuits," too, make an agreeable variety for 
the table, provided there is plenty of raised 
bread for those who prefer it ; but as a con- 
stant dependence they are undesirable and 
positively unwholesome. 

The various baking-powders which have now 
almost universally taken the place of " saler- 
atus," and are a very great improvement upon 



62 BREAD-MAKINC. 

it, give in their accompanying directions the 
proper quantity to be used. The same is true 
of saleratus as purchased in packages. 

Cream of tartar and super-carb. of soda are 
much used for making soda-biscuits, and per- 
haps there is no better form in which to use 
acid and alkali for this purpose. 



RECEIPT FOR SODA BISCUITS. 



One pint of milk (cold). 

One quart of flour. 

Piece of butter the size of a small egg. 

Teaspoonful of salt. 

One heaping teaspoonful of super-carb. soda. 

Two heaping teaspoonfuls, and one sixth of 
a teaspoonful more, of cream of tartar. 

Sift the flour into a pan or bowl, sift the 
cream of tartar through it, add the salt and 
mix well ; with the hands rub the butter into 
the flour. Dissolve the soda in a teaspoonful 
of hot water and add it to the milk ; then, grad- 
ually add the milk to the flour; first stir, then 
knead quickly for two or three minutes, till you 
have a smooth mass of dough ; sprinkle a little 
63 



64 BREAD-MAKING. 

flour on the bread-board, roll out the dough, 
cut the biscuits, put them into the baking-pans 
which have been previously buttered), and at 
once put them into a quick oven. Bake from 
twenty to forty minutes. 

Success in making biscuits with alkali and 
acid depends first upon so proportioning the 
materials as to secure effervescence, and then 
upon mixing them quickly, and baking them 
promptly, while the effervescence is so actively 
going on as to be accelerated by the heat of 
the oven, and also upon mixing the ingredients 
thoroughly. If the alkali is not well dissolved, 
there will be brown spots in the biscuits. If 
the acid is not well mixed through, there will 
be sour spots in the biscuits. If there is too 
large a proportion of alkali, the biscuits will be 
yellow and have a medicinal smell. If the 
proportion of acid is too large, the biscuits will 
be sour. 



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